Exercise 6

Form nouns using the suffix -ment and prefix over- with the meaning «сверх»; read and translate the words.

govern- growth-

achieve- crowding-

develop- fishing-

require- filling-

Exercise 7

Translate the following word combinations:

impact ecological

1. dagerous pollution 2. flood damage

interference wind

air facilities

3. healthy climate 4. municipal housing environment

Exercise 8

Read the text and try to understand its content.

Town building and municipal services

In considering the design of a town or city we must always remember that the town must be sited in a healthy position, free from dust, fogs, its lay-out must not encourage winds through urban spaces and it must not pollute its own atmosphere. It must provide proper standards of space and sunlight to its buildings and open spaces, and it must be possible to move about the town easily and without danger to life. Its parts must be so arranged that it is a convenient place for dwelling, working and playing. The town must work properly but it should also give pleasure to those who look at it. When we say that a town should be beautiful, we do not mean that it should have some fine parks and noble buildings, we mean that the whole of the environment, down to the insignificant detail, should be beautiful. The town designer must think of his raw materials in terms of time.

All new development takes place in an existing environment. That environment has taken centuries to form and the design must respect any features that have visual significance. Designing in terms of past time does not imply the imitation of the existing environment but respect of the form, colour, texture and general qualities of the existing development. Future time must also be thought of in terms of the estimated life of the objects. Objects like buildings and lamp posts grow old and become out-of-date and the designer must select those materials that are adequate for their life, no more and no less. Cities must grow, for growth is a law of life. But this natural overgrowth should have aroused action to restore balance. Mere size, as such, is no index of greatness. All overgrowth means overcrowding, which is loss of space, one of the vital needs of cities. It is generally becoming accepted that we need to redress the balance of population between one town and another, and between towns and countryside.

Most towns today have a characteristic functional pattern as follows: a central core containing the principal shopping centre, business zones, surrounded by suburbs of houses. Most town planners accept the traditional town pattern. Most cities conform to the modern town-building requirements. It is necessary to take care that they are modern and well-planned .

The government of the Russian Federation constantly strives to ensure that every new achievement in the fields of architecture, building and community services benefits the working man and helps to provide him with healthy living conditions. The solving of the housing problem as we understand it, means providing all people without exception, with comfortable housing that will completely satisfy the reasonable demands of the individual and the family.

To date, not a single country has managed to achieve this. Some of them don’t have enough housing facilities, while in others a part of the population lacks, the means for purchasing or renting suitable quarters, and in still other countries, there is not enough of either. We hope that at the time, our housing problem will be solved. We started with the premise that a comfortable flat with the number of rooms equal to the number of family members, plus one common room, could satisfy people’s reasonable demands for a long time to come. Many flats have been built in our country. The number of people moving to new apartments tops 10000000 every year. Many families improved their housing facilities, but still we experience a shortage of housing. The task of providing comfortable housing for everyone is fundamentally different from the task of satisfying the solvent demand for apartments.

The modern city shouldn’t be examined with reference to only four functions: work, transportation, dwelling and recreation; it should be examined with reference to biological, social, and personal needs of the community, its cultural and educational purposes. The rate of housing construction is growing from year to year. Now a 22-storeyed block of 147 flats can be assembled in three months and a 12- to 16-storeyed block of flats can be put up in just three weeks. One can see miles upon miles of construction work with forests of cranes lifting great panels. The blocks of flats vary from 5 to 12 storeys and 95% of the buildings are of prefabricated structures. Retail shops, various repair services and so on are located on the ground floors of the blocks of flats. There are many experimental 22-storeyed tower blocks. The three-roomed flats have fairly good-sized kitchens. The most interesting feature about such blocks of flats is that all traffic deliveries, garages and bus stops are located underground within easy access via subways to all the residential blocks.

Finally the planners are seeing to it that there is plenty of green space and trees around new residential blocks and parking places for private cars are provided for each block of flats.

Notes to the text:

in terms of с точки зрения; в смысле

raw material сырьё

take place происходить

the number of количество

with reference to что касается; относительно того, что